CARIBOU (AP) – A prosecutor told a judge Monday that a Caribou coffee shop employee sexually assaulted and fatally beat his supervisor before stealing $1,200 from the restaurant and fleeing in the woman’s car.

The trial of Christopher Shumway, 20, got under way in Aroostook County Superior Court on charges of murder, robbery and gross sexual assault.

Shumway is charged with beating 20-year-old Erin Sperrey at the Tim Hortons on Jan. 2, 2005, and leaving her in the bathroom to die while he continued waiting on customers. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

His lawyer, Brad Macdonald of Bangor, told Justice E. Allen Hunter that Shumway was psychotic and that something triggered his rage. There was nothing to suggest that the crime was premeditated or that Shumway intended to kill Sperrey, Macdonald said.

But Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson told Hunter that Shumway attempted to cover up the crime, stole money from his employer and put Sperrey’s body in the car before driving away.

Benson said he intends to call as many as 30 witnesses during the trial.

Jury selection was scheduled to take place last week, but Macdonald instead asked for a waiver of a jury trial and asked that the case be heard and decided by Hunter.

Sperrey’s body was found hours after she was killed, inside her car that was abandoned after spinning out in a snowstorm on Interstate 95 in Lincoln about 120 miles south of Caribou.

Shumway hitched a ride with a passer-by and was arrested at a Motel 6 in Bangor, where police said he apparently tried to hang himself by wrapping a phone cord around his neck and tying it to the clothes rack.

The victim’s family has said that Shumway had a crush on Sperrey and had asked her out on dates several times before he killed her.

Shumway’s stepfather, Elmer Sprague of Caribou, told the Bangor Daily News after last week’s court hearing that Shumway had suffered psychological problems, but had never been a violent person.

The family repeatedly had sought help for Shumway, especially in the days leading up to the slaying when he had been acting strangely, shaving his head and appearing to shake at times, Sprague said.

On the day of the murder, though, nothing appeared to be wrong with Shumway, Sprague said.

“I dropped him off at work, and he bought me a cup of coffee and said he’d see me later,” he said. “If we had seen any signs that something was wrong that day, he wouldn’t have been at work.”

AP-ES-07-10-06 1329EDT